Mark Steyn: American Twilight

National Review Online ^ | July 7, 2012 | Mark Steyn

[neverdem]

This weekend, I am thousands of miles from home in a remote and isolated part of the world with erratic communications and lack of basic services. No, not Washington, D.C. Things aren’t that primitive, thank God. I’m in a rude Highland croft way up a far Scottish brae, enjoying the simple life by choice, rather than because the capital region of the global superpower is incapable of turning the lights back on within a week.

Which is by way of saying that news from the imperial metropolis has reached me in fits and starts. The other morning it was the intriguing tidbit that Chief Justice John Roberts had written both the majority opinion in the Obamacare decision and the dissent. He is literally his own worst enemy. He’s apparently the Mike Myers of the Supreme Court, able to play both Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, although it has to be said that he seems rather more at home as the bumbling swinger. If I understand correctly, the chief justice wrote the dissent back when it was the 5–4 majority opinion, and then, after switching sides, wrote the new majority opinion, and the four guys left holding the old majority opinion decided to leave it as is, presumably as a way of not so subtly underlining their total contempt for their squishy chief. Fascinating stuff, I’m sure...

--snip--

America is seizing up before our eyes, and the action necessary to reverse the sclerosis is stymied at every turn by rapacious unions, government micro-regulators, dependency-spreading social engineers, and crony capitalists who know how to weave their way through the bureaucracy...

[neverdem]

You can't really treat a patient unless you can make the diagnosis. Steyn nailed it! All sorrts of debris from the left's heyday must be repealed or reversed.

[neverdem]

Ping!

[Gene Eric]

>> All sorrts of debris from the left’s heyday must be repealed or reversed.

Agreed.

[gleeaikin]

It would be nice if the corporate powers at PEPCO, PG&E, etc. could be at least as competent as government.

[expat2]

whether you’re in favor of socialized medicine or truly private health care, Swedes and Italians are now freer than Americans: They have a state system and a private system, and both are relatively simple.

Perhaps this kind of system should be looked at as replacement of Obamacare.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping neverdem.

[Sherman Logan]

That’s what bugs me about the “debate” over health care in this country.

There are hundreds of national systems around the world, with some dozens of them working reasonably well, arguably better than the American system.

But conservatives somehow got locked into “conserving” the present IMO indefensible system, and liberals got locked into the notion that single-payer is the ideal with total government control of an ostensibly private system the fallback position.

And absolutely nobody looks at or discusses what might be better alternatives beyond these two or three positions.

For instance, in America health insurance is tied to your employment, which is the consequence of wage and price freezes during WWII. It makes no sense from any rational POV. Yet here we are stuck with it 75 years later.

Conservatives holler about keeping our freedoms, when the present system is shot through with government controls, not to mention private insurer rules, leaving precious little freedom for individuals to make their own decisions. We have an illusion of private control with a reality of burdensome regulations that negate most of that control.

Why not scrap the whole system and start from scratch? Look at systems around the world and design one that would work better here.

[B212]

gleeaikin:....let me pose an example...let us say that your local power company, wanted to install new hi-voltage distribution towers, in order to isolate breakdowns on their system, this would mean extra towers about your town...would you agree to their proposals...then suppose they wanted to excavate your street to install underground wiring...would you agree to their construction....finally, would agree to have your power bill rise by 30% in order to pay for the improvements...

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I like this man! Long may he write. However, a question keeps arising within me. He is only stating the written word. I am beginning to wonder. Has the time come that we should consider that the use of written and spoken; “debate,” “discussion,” “the expression of different points of view” has come to an end? The left is not convinced by our words, they continue to impose their agenda night and day: i.e. death to babies, buggery, vice, corruption, bribery, graft, lies and deceit, constant violations of our laws and Constitution,control of vital institutions such as schools and churches all to the detrement of the public etc. etc.

[avenir]

You can't really treat a patient unless you can make the diagnosis.

I don't know, has Steyn become merely an Oracle of Despair? I don't think this era could ask for a more eloquent epitaph writer, but I'd prefer he use some of that brainpower to suggest solutions for how to survive his predicted Armageddon.

[Jack Black]

The more I think about it the more convinced I am that WE ARE DOOMED.

There is no way we are going to repeal the welfare state, and there is no way we are going to muddle through, either. The tax/spend ratios are wildly off.

I also read Victor Davis Hanson's most recent article about the horror of life in occupied Fresno, CA. (Not far from Stockton, the bankrupt city mentioned in this article). Life is a constant struggle against petty crime, vandalism, copper-theft, uninsured Mexican drivers crashing into things, etc.

Are there really 11 MILLION illegals in California? Can anyone imagine a scenario where that state is retaken for Citizens of the USA? (And not Obama amnesty grantees, either!)

Secession would be a good idea, but no one is doing the leg work to make that happen. Our legislatures are gutless, none will ever vote for separation from the FedGov beast, too many goodies flow from there.

So, when you take a cold hard look, it doesn't look like there is any possible scenario where we turn things around. We gotta ride this baby all the way to the crash-and-burn point. Maybe something good can be resurrected on the other side of it.

[Jack Black]

Vandalized Valley by Victor Davis Hansen.

I am starting to feel as if I am living in a Vandal state, perhaps on the frontier near Carthage around a.d. 530, or in a beleaguered Rome in 455. Here are some updates from the rural area surrounding my farm, taken from about a 30-mile radius. In this take, I am not so much interested in chronicling the flotsam and jetsam as in fathoming whether there is some ideology that drives it.

Last week an ancestral rural school near the Kings River had its large bronze bell stolen. I think it dated from 1911. I have driven by it about 100 times in the 42 years since I got my first license. The bell had endured all those years. Where it is now I don’t know. Does someone just cut up a beautifully crafted bell in some chop yard in rural Fresno County, without a worry about who forged it or why — or why others for a century until now enjoyed its presence?

The Horde is Here!

CWII PING!

[ScottinVA]

I completely agree.

At some point in time, some serious thought and dialogue going to need to be given formation of a truncated version of America. What scenario exists in which America, in its current 50-state form, can ever thrive again? Debt is blown well beyond any foreseeable generation’s ability to see its payoff, the moral fiber that held the country together is all but ripped to shreds as the populace descends into depravity, and people are more interested in securing benefits for themselves rather than taking steps and making the necessary sacrifices to bringing the country to a solid economic footing.

This, in addition to the deluge of illegals, most of whom have no intention of assimilating into Americanism.. instead many of them are preparing parts of the American landmass for an anschluess with Mexico... and nothing is stopping them.

Does this

[itsahoot]

but I'd prefer he use some of that brainpower to suggest solutions for how to survive his predicted Armageddon.

I think God told us this was coming, what do you expect Mark to do?

[ScottinVA]

Does this

[SuziQ]

Perhaps this kind of system should be looked at as replacement of Obamacare.

Yep. But instead of a full bureaucracy for those who don't have the means to purchase health insurance, or for those who either can't purchase it because of pre-existing conditions, or it is prohibitively expensive, do it by govt. grant.

For everyone else, make it possible to buy insurance, not connected to an employer, with PRE-tax dollars, in a full free market, across state lines, etc. If they don't want to spend the money on insurance, make sure that when they incur health expenses, they're put on a payment plan until they pay off their debt. Maybe doing that enough times will encourage those who just don't bother, because they don't think they will ever need it, to finally get it.

[SuziQ]

"Does someone just cut up a beautifully crafted bell in some chop yard in rural Fresno County, without a worry about who forged it or why — or why others for a century until now enjoyed its presence?

Yes, because it means nothing to them.

[spodefly]

BTTT

[rurgan]

Heard this monologue on Hannity form a guest host. It was imo the most Amazing monologue I’ve heard, a real call to arms:
http://www.hannity.com/videos/?uri=channels/400391/1681628

[AZLiberty]

And, to spite Arizona, California passed a law this week to make sure that the police aren’t allowed to call ICE for misdemeanor offenses. So even if Victor’s Vandals are caught, they won’t be sent back to Mexico, they can’t pay the fine because they have no “visible” source of income, and they can’t be put in jail because California’s prisons are already full.

Victor, and the rest of us, are screwed.